 |
| Madeley Court |
When the weather is dull but dry
I find that the best way of making the most of the weather is to focus less on
the scenery and more on the history of a place.
On the occasion of this walk we were faced with the possibility of a
mostly overcast day and so our original plan of exploring somewhere scenic in Shropshire where we were staying took a bit of a back
seat. Armed with volume 14 of the
Pathfinder series (Shropshire and
Staffordshire) we decided upon walk no.15 as this would take us around most of
the main sights of the Ironbridge World Heritage Site, the cradle of the
Industrial Revolution.
 |
| Making Friends |
We were actually staying at a
hotel en route (Madeley Court), so it made sense for us to do this walk for so
many reasons especially as we wouldn’t need to go anywhere in the car. It also meant that we didn’t start at the
beginning of the walk but about half way round.
 |
| Former Shop |
Madeley Court is a rather curious
place. It was originally built by an
industrialist, Basil Brooke, in the 16th Century. It has all the hallmarks of a well appointed
and rather expensive country house hotel, except that in reality it is occupied
by a hotel more at the budget end of the market. It was certainly a memorable place to stay
for its surroundings, but the rooms themselves were a lot more ordinary. It seems like an opportunity missed, but then
if it were in a more picturesque town it would probably have been out of our
price range.
 |
| Coalbrookdale Church |
Our route took us around the lake
in front of the hotel and then headed eastwards. In truth the first couple of miles of the
walk were fairly ordinary but surprisingly rural considering that the
appearance of the map suggested we were in the heart of Telford New Town. The path meandered alongside fields and above
us were threatening skies suggesting that rain might come at any time. The tracks themselves weren’t easy going
either – we found a lot of mud impeding our progress on the early section. Yet, the children were happy with their
surroundings and even more so when they found a field full of ponies that they
said hello to.
 |
| View From The Rotunda |
After awhile the industrial
relics of the past started coming into sight.
Firstly we followed a goods railway for a short distance that didn’t
look as though it was well used. A
glance at the map soon showed that this was part of a much wider network of
lines, most of which were now defunct.
We followed the railway line down past an old ironworks and mill where
it was quite obvious that it would once have been powered by the millpond that
has now receded into nature and provides a lovely habitat for all manner of
water-dwelling creatures. A little
further on and we took a little detour through a community orchard, where
passers-by were encouraged to pick the fruit on the trees. Alas a little early in the year for us to
take part but nevertheless I did think it a wonderful idea.
 |
| How it Once Looked |
Here we met a road lined with
houses dating from the industrial age.
These were the well appointed ones, suggesting that they would have been
owned by the mill-owning classes or the senior managers. I imagine that even in the 21st
Century they would be desirable places to live.
As we rounded the corner my eyes were drawn to an empty shop, not
because it was empty but because it seemed to belong to a long gone era of
shops. I have no idea how long it has
been empty but it had all the appearances of being from the 1960s or
1970s. I rather wish it were still
functioning for I would have loved going into such a time warp.
 |
| Iron Bridge |
We were now in Coalbrookdale,
famous as the place where smelting iron using coke first caught on and
rendering my home county
of Sussex as a redundant
place for iron smelting since wood was no longer needed. The old works is still functioning and is now
under the ownership of Aga/ Rayburn, a rather suitable modern owner as they
make very robust and rather traditional cookers.
 |
| View from the Iron Bridge |
We were rather too focused on the
old plant and missed the turn up to the old church that stood on the hill,
rather mocking us. A quick change of
route plan that did not involve us doubling back took us instead up a rather
steep hill to regain the right route.
The decision to head to the top was definitely the right one though as
we soon came upon the best viewpoint of the whole walk in the shape of the site
of The Rotunda. Sadly the old rotunda is
no longer with us but was built for local folk to admire the view of the
industrial wonder of the industrial age in the shape of Ironbridge. Even in the modern era this is quite a
special view although I wonder how many visitors to this famous valley actually
know of its existence?
 |
| Former Blast Furnace at Bedlam |
After admiring the view for a few
minutes we headed down the very steep flight of steps down into the valley
below. Despite Ironbridge’s
gentrification and modernisation as a rather middle class looking place these
days, it must have been a different story back in the 1780s. Many of the buildings still exist including
kilns and other manufacturing plants but have been turned into swanky eating
establishments, twee craft shops or other places designed to cash in on the
‘visitor experience’. Yet despite this
overwhelming commercialism Ironbridge has retained an air of dignity and when
we finally arrived at the bridge itself it was hard not to feel very impressed
at its ingenuity.
 |
| Exploring the route to Bridgnorth |
The bridge no longer has an important
bridging role over the River Severn, other than for curious pedestrians, but
has its place in history as the first major structure to have been built of
cast iron, made possible by the recent discovery of smelting using coke. No traffic has used the bridge since 1934 and
the bridge is now one of the most important constructions from that era.
 |
| Jackfield Level Crossing |
Our onward route was on the south
side of the River Severn, over which we had just crossed. For the next couple of miles our route took
us along an old railway route, now turned cycle path. This was still pretty mucky in places, which
made us wonder how much rain this area had had.
Although the railway line itself was rather featureless and wooded for
much of its length we did come across a viewpoint across to the old blast
furnaces at Bedlam. There is a famous
painting of this old plant showing was a fearsome place it must have been. The painting resembles a volcanic eruption in
its intensity. Further along the track
we stopped at The Black Swan, a pub in the settlement of Jackfield. Lunch here is highly recommended – we had a
lovely meal washed down with a pint of the local brew.
 |
| Severn Footbridge at Coalport |
Feeling fortified we had rather
an unpleasant little section of path to negotiate across a building site
created by pylon replacement work. We
took to the dismantled railway for a bit further rather than the scheduled
route, which was closed for walkers. We
also passed the Jackfield
Tile Museum,
which sounded rather dull. I assume that
the interest is in the artwork of the tile rather than the methods of making
them? Anyhow it was far too tough a sell
for our children to contemplate so we passed by.
 |
| Hay Inclined Plane |
Eventually at Coalport we had to
cross the river once again and found ourselves at the foot of the Hay Inclined
Plane. This former rail/ canal
interchange looked rather derelict now especially as the canal was covered with
a sheen of duckweed. The complex here
reminded us of the one we encountered at Peak
Forest a few years back near Whaley Bridge.
 |
| Coalport Industrial Complex |
We popped into the shop at one of
the museums here and found some rather inviting looking stuff for purchase
although it was completely impractical for us to consider as we still had a
couple of miles to walk so we left empty handed. Our onward route took us along the route of
another old railway line, this time the former branch to Coalport from Wellington. Truth be told the route wasn’t the most exciting
apart from the tunnel about half a mile north of Coalport, which provoked some echoing
amusement for the children as they passed through. Eventually we found ourselves back at Madeley Court
after a couple of miles of railway walking interrupted by a road that has usurped
some of the route.
 |
| Coalport Tunnel |
This walk was a good tour of many
of the industrial sites in the Ironbridge Gorge area and if armed with one of
the museum passports that are on offer, could make for a good link walk between
museums. I have to say though that of
our party I was probably the only one who would really have been interested. The girls were happy with the length of walk,
some of the industrial relics they saw, the view of Ironbridge but perhaps most
of all they were happy with their pub lunch halfway along the route J
No comments:
Post a Comment